The Student Room Group

How to get pass recruitment agencies

I keep looking online for jobs, such engineers.net, totaljobs, indeed the normal job websites and all i see are recruitment agencies. I send them my CV and i'm pretty sure they don't pass my CV on to the actual employer.

So my question is how can i contact the employer directly? The recruitment agencies don't give the employers name in the job description and i've tried to copy and paste the job description itself into google, which didn't work.

Any ideas guys?
Contact and network with companies directly.
Reply 2
Original post by Smack
Contact and network with companies directly.


Kind of confused by your answer, contact BT and virgin media directly?
The smaller companies that aren't too well known but are hiring, what should i do about that?
Original post by bahjat93
Kind of confused by your answer, contact BT and virgin media directly?


Yes. Network and make contacts within those companies.


The smaller companies that aren't too well known but are hiring, what should i do about that?


Contact them. Make connections in them and network.
Reply 4
Original post by Smack
Yes. Network and make contacts within those companies.



Contact them. Make connections in them and network.


This doesn't answer my question at all! There are over thousands of small engineering firms and if i had connections i would have used them by now :frown:

Is there a job website that "bans" recruitment agencies? I HATE THEM SO MUCH!!
Original post by bahjat93
I keep looking online for jobs, such engineers.net, totaljobs, indeed the normal job websites and all i see are recruitment agencies. I send them my CV and i'm pretty sure they don't pass my CV on to the actual employer.

So my question is how can i contact the employer directly? The recruitment agencies don't give the employers name in the job description and i've tried to copy and paste the job description itself into google, which didn't work.

Any ideas guys?


Recruitment agencies will often ignore a CV if the person sending it isn't already registered with them as they can't put people who aren't registered through for jobs. You could get in touch with the recruitment agencies via telephone and say you are interested in these vacancies and they may ask you to come in and sign up. If you do that, getting you a job is worth money for them so they will try and place you somewhere if your skills fit the bill.

Also, using those sort of sites has a low hit rate but look at companies directly, which will require more effort on your part, and apply through their systems.
Reply 6
Original post by natninja
Recruitment agencies will often ignore a CV if the person sending it isn't already registered with them as they can't put people who aren't registered through for jobs. You could get in touch with the recruitment agencies via telephone and say you are interested in these vacancies and they may ask you to come in and sign up. If you do that, getting you a job is worth money for them so they will try and place you somewhere if your skills fit the bill.

Also, using those sort of sites has a low hit rate but look at companies directly, which will require more effort on your part, and apply through their systems.


Thanks for your comment, I will take your advice on board. I have already started applying for jobs on companies websites but the really small companies don't tend to have websites where you can apply for a job. But once again thank you!
Original post by bahjat93
Thanks for your comment, I will take your advice on board. I have already started applying for jobs on companies websites but the really small companies don't tend to have websites where you can apply for a job. But once again thank you!


always worth emailing in aspeculative cover letter and CV
Original post by bahjat93
I keep looking online for jobs, such engineers.net, totaljobs, indeed the normal job websites and all i see are recruitment agencies. I send them my CV and i'm pretty sure they don't pass my CV on to the actual employer.

So my question is how can i contact the employer directly? The recruitment agencies don't give the employers name in the job description and i've tried to copy and paste the job description itself into google, which didn't work.

Any ideas guys?


Small companies use recruitment agencies. The company I work for uses a recruitment agency. Reason for that is data protection, keeping personal information on file for x amount of years, checking visa, passport, work eligibility etc etc - it's a long process. We rather pay a company to do it for us. Why don't you like recruitment agencies? All the jobs I have got, except 1, was through the agencies. Some will ask you to come in to register (try to avoid them because 9/10, they don't really have a job for you, so make sure you ask and confirm before you go down there), and others will only register you once you got an interview / the job.

Considering it's so hard to get jobs, to say no to recruitment agencies - who take up a lot of the job space, will be limiting you a lot. Plus, they also will help you on your CV, interview skills etc.
Reply 9
Original post by stargirl63
Small companies use recruitment agencies. The company I work for uses a recruitment agency. Reason for that is data protection, keeping personal information on file for x amount of years, checking visa, passport, work eligibility etc etc - it's a long process. We rather pay a company to do it for us. Why don't you like recruitment agencies? All the jobs I have got, except 1, was through the agencies. Some will ask you to come in to register (try to avoid them because 9/10, they don't really have a job for you, so make sure you ask and confirm before you go down there), and others will only register you once you got an interview / the job.

Considering it's so hard to get jobs, to say no to recruitment agencies - who take up a lot of the job space, will be limiting you a lot. Plus, they also will help you on your CV, interview skills etc.


To be fair i'm an impatient person. I've only been applying for 3 weeks and my patience is running thin.

My hatred for recruitment agencies comes from them not READING my covering letter that i write for them, i spend approximately 30min making changes to my covering letter to suit the job that i am applying for and they just ignore it and glance over my CV. Also they don't send out decline offers, keeping me on the hook for months if they want.

None the less i keep applying to every graduate related job i can find
Original post by bahjat93
To be fair i'm an impatient person. I've only been applying for 3 weeks and my patience is running thin.

My hatred for recruitment agencies comes from them not READING my covering letter that i write for them, i spend approximately 30min making changes to my covering letter to suit the job that i am applying for and they just ignore it and glance over my CV. Also they don't send out decline offers, keeping me on the hook for months if they want.

None the less i keep applying to every graduate related job i can find


That's your problem.

You're limiting yourself to graduate jobs. You need to just be applying for companies. There are a lot of jobs out there who require degrees, but not necessarily called "graduate" jobs. The job I got, was not a graduate job. It was a job, suitable for someone in the sector I was in. And you get paid like a normal person, not an ex-student (i.e. more).

Also, why are you spending so long on a cover letter?!?!??!?! That's crazy even for companies I applied for, I never did that. All you need to do, is tailor the first paragraph to the job, the rest, keep it generic. Recruitment companies are not going to use your cover letter to apply for the job on your behalf (they have their own cover letter stuff).

Jobs are about numbers, the more you apply for, the more you will get. It's not a "quality versus quantity" thing. Out of 100 application, you will get a response from 30, and interview with about 5. Keep your applications quick. That's it.

My cover letters always were so generic "I would like to work for this company because I believe I would suit this role, since I have experience in this industry" ...it's all generic. And since graduating in 2012, I have am moving into my third job now, moving up the ranks and have had loads of interviews. It's a numbers game. The sooner you crunch it, the better.
Original post by bahjat93
To be fair i'm an impatient person. I've only been applying for 3 weeks and my patience is running thin.

My hatred for recruitment agencies comes from them not READING my covering letter that i write for them, i spend approximately 30min making changes to my covering letter to suit the job that i am applying for and they just ignore it and glance over my CV. Also they don't send out decline offers, keeping me on the hook for months if they want.

None the less i keep applying to every graduate related job i can find


It might be a good idea to contact the recruitment agent directly (they usually have a phone number or some other form of contact in the advert) and explain yourself and what you're looking for. You can then see if the recruitment agent would be willing to put you forward for the role, and if not they may keep your CV on file for later use.

There isn't any money to be made in recruitment agencies sending out rejection emails, so hence they don't generally do it.
Original post by bahjat93
Any ideas guys?


Oh, and just as an aside, my successes from recruitment agents (where success is defined as an interview) has came from when they have contacted me about the role, and not the vice versa. I uploaded my CV to popular and industry specific job boards and recruiters must have pulled my CV from there. I've had the odd message on LinkedIn, too.

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